THE INTERREGNUM.

405

the Princess of Orange, by her husband, and would have been chap.instituted if the parties who were accused of fraud had not - 16 ^~taken a course which, in any ordinary case, would have beenconsidered as a decisive proof of guilt. They had not chosento await the issue of a solemn parliamentary proceeding: theyhad stolen away into a foreign country: they had carried withthem the child: they had carried with them all those Frenchand Italian women of the bedchamber who, if there had beenfoul play, must have been privy to it, and who ought thereforeto have been subjected to a rigorous cross examination. Toadmit the boy’s claim without inquiry was impossible; andthose who called themselves his parents had made inquiryimpossible. Judgment must therefore go against him by de-fault. If he was wronged, he was wronged, not by the nation,but by those whose strange conduct at the time of his birthhad justified the nation in demanding investigation, and whohad then avoided investigation by flight. He might there-fore, with perfect equity, be considered as a pretender. Andthus the crown had legally devolved on thePrincess of Orange.

She was actually Queen Regnant. The Houses had nothingto do but to proclaim her. She might, if such were her plea-sure, make her husband her first minister, and might even,with the consent of Parliament, bestow on him the title ofKing.

The persons who preferred this scheme to any other werefew; and it was certain to be opposed, both by all who stillbore any good will to James, and by all the adherents ofWilliam. Yet Danby, confident in his own knowledge of par-liamentary tactics, and well aware how much, when greatparties are nearly balanced, a small flying squadron can effect,was not without hopes of being able to keep the event of thecontest in suspense till both Whigs and Tories, despairing ofcomplete victory, and afraid of the consequences of delay,should suffer him to act as umpire. Nor is it impossible thathe might have succeeded if his efforts had been seconded,nay, if they had not been counteracted, by her whom he wishedto raise to the height of human greatness. Quicksighted ashe was and versed in affairs, he was altogether ignorant of the